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Submission + - Opa 1.0 Released (opalang.org)

Submitted by phy_si_kal
phy_si_kal writes: The open source Opa project just released its 1.0 version. Opa appeared last year and was discussed a few times.

Throughout the year, Opa adopted a JavaScript-like syntax, gained support for MongoDB and now Node.js.
Opa positions itself as the enterprise JavaScript framework due to the safety and security provided by its strong static typing system.

Indeed, Opa checks the type safety of the application over the whole application, from client, to server, to database. Opa also provides many automation algorithms, such as the automated use of Node.js fibers at runtime, automated client/server and server/database dialog.

The site of the project also announces a developer challenge.

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: What to do before college? 3

Submitted by MtownNaylor
MtownNaylor writes: I graduated high school two days ago and am currently enrolled to attend college for studying Computer Science. I spent last summer working as a contractor, programming in Java doing work for a single company. I am looking to further either my career, my education, or both this summer. The problem is that I have found it difficult to find summer employment or internships programming for a multitude of reasons (lack of opportunities, lack of experience, lack of degree.) So what is a high school graduate who wants to work as a programmer to do?
Linux

Submission + - Fedora Introduces Offline Updates (itworld.com)

Submitted by
itwbennett
itwbennett writes: "Thanks to a new feature approved this week by the Fedora Engineering Steering Committee, you won't hear Fedora 18 users bragging about systems that have been running continuously for months on end. 'Fedora's new Offline System Update feature will change the current system to something that is more Windows- and OS X-like: while many updates can still be made on the fly, certain package updates will require the system to be restarted so the patches can be applied in a special mode, according to the Fedora wiki page on the feature,' writes blogger Brian Proffitt."
Microsoft

Submission + - Windows 8 Will Be Harder To Exploit (net-security.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A lot of things have already been revealed about the security features of the upcoming Windows 8: there will be a picture password sign in option; a built-in antivirus (Windows Defender) that will activate itself if it doesn't detect another active AV solution; the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) will replace BIOS ROM in order to verify software before it executes and ensure that no untrusted code runs before the operating system loads. Windows 8 will have more exploit mitigation technologies at its disposal, chief among which are the Windows Heap Manager and Windows Kernel Pool Allocator, which should block malware from exploiting a number of vulnerabilities.
Businesses

Submission + - Why Bad Jobs (or No Jobs) Happen to Good Workers (ieee.org)

Submitted by
sean_nestor
sean_nestor writes: "Back in October, an article appeared in The Wall Street Journal with the headline “Why Companies Aren’t Getting the Employees They Need.” It noted that even with millions of highly educated and highly trained workers sidelined by the worst economic downturn in three generations, companies were reporting shortages of skilled workers. Companies typically blame schools, for not providing the right training; the government, for not letting in enough skilled immigrants; and workers themselves, who all too often turn down good jobs at good wages.
The author of the article, an expert on employment and management issues, concluded that although employers are in almost complete agreement about the skills gap, there was no actual evidence of it. Instead, he said, “The real culprits are the employers themselves.”"
Science

Submission + - The World's First Supercavitating Boat? (xconomy.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: For decades, researchers have been trying to build boats, submarines, and torpedoes that make use of supercavitation---a bubble layer around the hull that drastically reduces friction and enables super-fast travel. Now a company in New Hampshire called Juliet Marine Systems has built and tested such a craft, and says it is the world’s fastest underwater vehicle. The ship, called the “Ghost,” looks like two supercavitating torpedoes with a command module on top, and can carry 18 people plus weapons and supplies. The company is in talks with the U.S. Navy to build a version of the ship that can guard the fleet against swarm attacks by small boats. The question is how well it really works, and whether it can be used reliably and effectively on the high seas.
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Natwest and RBS suffer major technical fault, wages not showing in accounts (techworld.com)

Submitted by concertina226
concertina226 writes: The Royal Bank of Scotland group has been hit by a technical fault that is affecting RBS and Natwest customers' online accounts and preventing balances from being updated.

The issue came to light this morning, when a number of customers reported on the company's help pages that wages and tax credits had not been paid into their accounts. One small business owner told the BBC that the electronic system to pay staff was also not working.

RBS acknowledged the problem on its Twitter page at around 10am this morning, apologising to customers and claiming that it was working hard to resolve the technical issues.

Submission + - How Madefire is changing the visual grammar of comics (xconomy.com)

Submitted by
waderoush
waderoush writes: "When you read a comic book or graphic novel on your tablet device, you're usually looking at a static reproduction of a print page, not a 'born digital' creation with serious interactivity. Madefire, a new startup in Emeryville, CA, is working to change that with the release today of its new iPad reader and comic-book authoring tool. Featuring seven original titles at launch — including one from Watchmen creator Dave Gibbons — the Madefire platform largely abandons traditional panel layouts in favor of 'sequences' in which the action progresses through the addition of image layers, as well as sound effects and music. 'We want to make people look at the fabric of storytelling—left to right, top to bottom—and break that fabric,' says Madefire founder Ben Wolstenholme. The company is also avoiding well-known superhero titles in favor of new characters and storylines. 'This century needs its new creations and its new myths and legacies,' says chief creative officer Liam Sharp, a veteran of X-Men, Spider-Man, Spawn, and other well-known traditional series."
Television

Submission + - Apple's HDTV tipped for Q4 2012 launch (bgr.com)

Submitted by zacharye
zacharye writes: Apple’s highly anticipated high-definition television may launch ahead of the holidays this year, according to a new report. Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White on Thursday relayed a report from Chinese-language 21cbh.com claiming that Apple manufacturing partner Hon Hai is scheduled to begin receiving LCD panels for the Apple HDTV in the third quarter this year. Earlier reports suggested that the rumored Apple television will not launch until some time in 2013 or even 2014, but this new report may add weight to rumors that the new Apple TV will be released in the fourth quarter this year...
IT

Submission + - How IT Can Serve The Business Without Being A Slave (infoworld.com)

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes: "Business users are increasingly going around IT's back to provision outside services, largely through the cloud. And while IT may want to beat down these self-proclaimed 'superusers,' IT organizations may be better off taking a different tack — one that could elevate IT's status beyond that of captive technicians responsible for maintaining systems. 'Here's the hard truth: The employees you support — whose data centers you keep humming and whose email accounts you provision — they don't need you any more. If you can't provide a service they want right now, they'll call up Salesforce or Amazon Web Services and order it from the cloud. And they'll do it without even telling you. ... IT departments that wish to stay relevant in a BYOD and cloud-based world will need to redefine themselves as service providers. They'll need to make the leap from being technicians responsible for maintaining systems to experts who offer a menu of services and offer intelligent recommendations about which ones will help drive the business forward.'"
Privacy

Submission + - Read fingerprints from 6 meters away 1

Submitted by Burdell
Burdell writes: A new startup has technology to read fingerprints from up to 6 meters away. IDair currently sells to the military, but they are beta testing it with a chain of 24-hour fitness centers that want to restrict sharing of access cards. IDair also wants to sell this to retail stores and credit card companies as a replacement for physical cards. Lee Tien from the EFF notes that the security of such fingerprint databases is a privacy concern.
Oracle

Submission + - Oracle's Larry Ellison to buy Hawaiian island (networkworld.com)

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: Larry Ellison might have a new place to dock his yacht. The billionaire CEO of Oracle has reached an agreement to buy 98 percent of Lanai, one of Hawaii's eight main islands. The deal, which requires state approval, will see Ellison purchase 88,000 acres of island land from fellow billionaire David Murdock, according to a filing made Wednesday with Hawaii's Public Utilities Commission.
Cloud

Submission + - Rackspace exec warns of Amazon lock-in (networkworld.com)

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: Customers of Amazon Web Services may be unknowingly locking their data and computational logic in with the popular cloud service, making it difficult to move or significantly modify those resources, the president of a competing cloud provider said this week. As cloud computing matures, "people will want to invent and build new features, ones that they then can run anywhere. I think if we just wait around for Amazon to build things, we will have a hard time as an industry," said Lew Moorman, president of hosted service provider Rackspace. "It's not even a criticism of Amazon. What I'm asking for is an open alternative." Moorman addressed the topic at the GigaOm Structure conference in San Francisco and spoke with IDG News Service after his talk.
Privacy

Submission + - Safari leaks client certificates (whirlpool.net.au)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: If you have client certs installed in your iPhone or iPad that contain your employment details or other personal information be very careful what sites you visit.
When browsing to a website that requests an x509 client certificate from Safari, the user is prompted to select a client certificate. Selecting cancel results in safari sending a client certificate anyway. The server now has all the personal information stored in the client cert.

Submission + - How to scrub unethical company from resume? 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I few years ago I worked for Berico Technologies (one of the axis of evil partners from the HB Gary hacking scandal). I had nothing to do with the shenanigans Berico was involved in — I worked for an entirely different division of the company. The team I worked with was a nice group of people, fairly typical as far as DC area developers go, none of whom were involved in the scandalous behavior either.

Lately I have been job hunting — the Berico Technologies bullet raises eyebrows with the more diligent interviewers. A few have questioned why I would work for such a company. My reply that 90% of the employees there were innocent (as was I) is sometimes believed and sometimes not. Long story short: I am tired of defending my time at Berico.

So. What to do? What was Berico has since split up into several companies. In some cases they are simply shell companies to hide the Berico name, in other cases they are subsidiaries that simply retreated into their acronym, and the original Berico still exists as sort of a honeypot to divert attention from the spin offs. The owner seems to have been kicked out of DC so to speak and is last been seen skulking about the Baltimore startup community. Should I simply plop the name of the company which was formed from my former division at Berico on my resume? After all if they can hide behind that name why can't I? Perhaps just omit the experience completely?
Education

Submission + - Valve unveils Steam for Schools, Portal in the classroom (tekgoblin.com)

Submitted by
tekgoblin
tekgoblin writes: "Well this is pretty awesome, Valve has made an entrance into the education sector. They plan to release a new version of Steam for education uses in schools.

Valve will call this service Steam for Schools, an education version of the Steam client that allows administrators to limit what its users can access. The idea of Steam for Schools is to use the platform as a teaching aid. Valve has already put together a number of educational lesson plans for using Portal 2 and its level editor to teach math and physics."
Privacy

Submission + - Older Means Wiser to Computer Security (net-security.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Growing up in the digital age, 18 – 25s may appear to be a more tech-savvy generation, but that does not translate into safer computing and online practices. A new study reveals that they are the most at-risk group, and prone to cyber-attacks. That makes this group even more vulnerable to online security threats. Younger users tend to prioritize entertainment and community over security, perhaps due to overconfidence in their security knowledge. For example, they’re more concerned about gaming or other social activities than their online security. They also have less sophisticated security software, and hence, have reported more security problems than other groups.
Piracy

Submission + - Reject ACTA, European Parliament trade committee recommends (computerworlduk.com)

Submitted by Qedward
Qedward writes: The European Parliament's trade committee, INTA, voted on Thursday not to postpone a crucial parliamentary vote on the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.

The committee also decided, by 19 votes to 12, to recommend to the Parliament that the trade deal be rejected. INTA is the lead committee examining the international agreement, and its recommendation will carry weight with the rest of the Parliament.

The Parliamentary plenary vote on the treaty is now scheduled for July 3.
Biotech

Submission + - Biotech report says IP spurs innovation (nature.com)

Submitted by
ananyo
ananyo writes: "A report presented at the 2012 BIO International Convention in Boston, Massachusetts suggests that patents do not stifle progress when they occur at early phases of research, as some have suggested.
Over the past decade, increases in patents have been matched by growth in the biotech and pharmaceutical sectors in India, Brazil, Singapore and other countries with emerging economies. The strength of patent rights can be quantified in an index ranging from 0 (no patent rights) to 5 (very strong). Over time, the countries that US biotech and pharmaceutical companies have invested in have moved up the IP barometer, the report (PDF) says."

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